News Main Menu

Newseum visit explores how museums depict history and shape memory

October 23, 2013

Newseum visit explores how museums depict history and shape memory

Penn State Berks students enrolled in three Communication Arts and Sciences (CAS) courses recently visited the Newseum in Washington D.C. to explore the ways in which museums depict history and shape public memory.

Fourteen students from three CAS courses – Rhetorical Theory, Storytelling, and Family Communication – visited the Newseum on Oct 12. Students were given specific assignments for the trip. For example, in the Storytelling course, students read articles on public/collective memory, and applied the articles/concepts from these articles to the "visual storytelling" strategies in the Newseum exhibits.

According to Cheryl Nicholas, associate professor of communication arts and sciences, who led the students on the excursion, other goals of the field experience included focusing on “experiential learning”; fostering diversity/inclusivity by giving students the opportunity to explore different cultural perspectives, artifacts, spaces; and cultural matter that may take students outside their “comfort zone”; exposing students to creative projects and other creative outlets; and fostering a sense of fellowship in diversity by having them participate in a communal event while recognizing and learning cultural differences.

Funds for the field excursion were provided by the Elsa L. and John W. Bowman Curriculum Endowment and the Penn State Berks International Fund. For more information, contact Nicholas at cln12@psu.edu or 610-396-6168.